There are numerous ways of securing an electrical connector to a circuit board. For example, the connector may be provided with mounting flanges having bores that align with corresponding apertures of the circuit board. Threaded fasteners can be extended through the bore and board aperture. In other arrangements, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,228,870, one portion of a holding device is inserted into a recess of the housing flange from the connector mounting surface and a second portion of the device is inserted into the board aperture. The portions are provided with barbs and the recess and board aperture are sized for an interference fit with the barbs. U.S. Pat. No. 5,074,807 is directed to component holding devices for mounting electrical connectors to each other and to circuit boards. One of the embodiments of the device is a stamped H-shaped member having outwardly extending barbs along the outer edges of the two pairs of vertically extending essentially parallel projections or legs, one pair of the projections being received in a housing cavity and the other pair of projections being received in an aperture of a circuit board. The width of the projection may be varied to accommodate different geometries of housing recesses and circuit board apertures. When inserting the H-shaped device, the projections or legs are slightly deflected toward each other to be received in the recess or aperture and upon mounting the connector to the board, the projections returning substantially to the original shape after the holding device is fully engaged in the respective recess or aperture.
In mounting components to boards, it is desirable to minimize the outer envelope of the connector to reduce board space. It is also desirable to have a connector of reduced size that self aligns as it is mounted to the board. It is further desirable to have a holding device that is widely tolerant of dimensional variations in sizes of mounting apertures for the holding device.